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Stephen Mack (1766-1826)
}} Biography Col. Stephen Mack was born in Marlow, New Hampshire. He came to Michigan from Tunbridge, Vermont in 1810. In Detroit he was a partner in Emerson, Mack & Conant, which was the leading mercantile house in Detroit at that time; the firm was composed of Thomas Emerson, father of Curtis Emerson, Esq., of East Saginaw, Stephen Mack, and Shubael Conant; they kept a general assortment of dry goods, groceries, crockery, and hardware. Revolutionary War Col. Mack served in the American army in Michigan during the War of 1812. Revolutionary War Service: Enlisted at age of sixteen in New Hampshire militia, as a private in Capt. John Trotter's company under Col. Rufus Putnam's sixth regiment; received rank of colonel in Vermont troops. Detroit Supervisor Occupation: Director of Bank of Michigan, 1818; trustee of village of Detroit and supervisor 1816-1818. "By 1816, Stephen Mack had changed partners in his fur and trade business and was doing so well he decided to open an office in Chicago, four miles south of Fort Dearborn. Meanwhile he speculated land in Michigan and formed a coalition of land prospectors called the 'Pontiac Company.' These men would eventually plot and organize the city of Pontiac, Michigan." He was a member of the first Michigan Territorial Council, which met in Detroit in 1824. He was also the founder of Pontiac. Marriage and Family He was the husband of Temperance Bond, who left Michigan to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah, where she died in 1856. Stephen Mack and his wife, Temperance Bond, were the parents of 12 children (including nine daughters and three sets of twins). His sister, Lucy Mack Smith, was the mother of the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith (1805-1844). Sources: History of Oakland County, I, 75; Mass. Soldiers and Sailors in Revolution, X, 109; Mich. Hist. Colls., I, 24, 470; III, 223, 267, 570, 571, 574; IV, 190, 459; V, 540; VI, 385; XIII, 316. Vital Records Pontiac Gravestone * Location: Oak Hill Cemetery Pontiac, Oakland County, Michigan - Plot Block 4, Lot 277, Grave 6 Detroit Obituary Detroit Gazette (Detroit, Michigan Territory, Tuesday, November 14, 1826) "Col. Stephen Mack, a soldier of the Revolution, an enterprising and industrious citizen, and a kind and provident father, departed this life last Saturday morning at Pontiac, in the seventy-second year of his age. Col. M. has for nearly twenty years resided in this territory, and has been distinguished from the mass of his fellow-citizens for his enterprise and the great utility of his views. It is owing to his exertions more than to any other man's, that the first settlers of Oakland County were so soon accommodated with mills and other useful works. His sacrifices and his exertions in promoting the best interests of the new county, which he had been so eminently useful in settling and organizing, endeared him to his fellow-citizens, and confiding in his excellent judgment in all matters connected with the welfare of a young community, they elected him to the first legislative council of the territory. His advanced age constantly warned him that he had but a short time to remain with us; yet he stayed not his labors, and death found him striving to accomplish objects of the most useful and permanent kind. The loss of such a man is truly that of the public -- and many are those who share the grief of the numerous family which he has left. "